This representation here takes time today to greet Zamboanga City Beng Climaco on her natal day today (Sept. 7). Happy Birthday, Mayor. May you have many more birthdays to come.

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Nice sniping there made by Cong. Celso Lobregat, in expressing gladness over the recent comment of DILG Sec. Mar Roxas, the anointed LP standard bearer for the 2016 polls.

You will recall, Mar exuded confidence in saying the Celso-Beng political alliance will remain intact in the coming elections. In expressing joy over Mar’s words, he clearly regarded it as a blessing in his favor. Safe to say, it was as if he is positive that Mar can convince Beng to bow out and leave the mayoralty bid o the former.

I assume this, when he cracked a statement, “Mar did not say who’s here and who’s there.”

Celso seems to know. Say you?

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An erroneous announced power outage on the Baliwasan feeder caused me to lose a copy-pasted news article, which I was to have used here as a direct referral. Anyway, I still recall part of it contents. It was centered on the recruitment of some 5,000 PNP recruits within the year.

Any way 5,000. That number rings a bell. 5,000 PNP slots? Only? What ever happened to the other 18,000?

Recall that in one of our editions here, we quoted Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano as having said, the PNP has a budget this year for the recruitment of 23,000 new cops.

As that is the case, why recruit only 5,000?

Sounds shady, coming across this other bit of story today that makes me wonder if this mode is tied up to hereto style?, “the savings that the government may generate this year because of underspending could provide the executive department additional funds that it can use or realign to other line items in the budget similar to the Disbursement Acceleration Fund (DAP), former Senator Panfilo Lacson warned Sunday. (TMT)

Per account of Lacson, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had stopped the continuing appropriations policy on the budget and has limited the lifespan of allocated funds to one year, which will allow the executive to realign funds that were unused during the period.

If continuing appropriations is still in effect, he explained, the budget allocated for line items can still be used for the same items the following year. But Secretary (Florencio) Abad stopped it, insisting that budget must be used within the year it was appropriated. As that is the case, Lacson added, there will be no option but to have it realigned.

“The question is if the allocation on several line items for 2015 will not be implemented, will it be free for all? It will be declared savings that the President can reallocate on whatever item he wants,” the former senator added.

He added that such a scenario can be likened to DAP, which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in 2014.

The government is being criticized for its underspending, the reason why DAP was introduced in the first place.

Based on the records of the DBM, there was over P500 billion unspent fund from the 2013 and 2014 budget that could still be used in 2015.” (TMT)

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While, there is no reported bill filed seeking to legalize abortion in the country, several lawmakers have started taking up arms to block its passage in the lower house. Among them are Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and House Independent Bloc leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, who both said there is no way for such anti-life proposal to prosper in the Lower Chamber.

At the same time, Belmonte and Romualdez assured unconditional support to the position made by Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) strongly opposing the approval of a proposal legalizing abortion in the Philippines..

It turns out, even Isabela Rep. Rodolfo “Rodito” Albano III, principal author of the medicinal marijuana bill, said such “immoral” proposal should not be entertained at all.

Basically, I am against legal abortion. But, somewhere, somehow there could be instances or an instance where abortion should be allowed. Take the case of a pregnant woman who catches the German measles. Per my previous readings, according to medical practitioners, in cases such as that the nurturing child is surely or was it likely to be afflicted with defects or abnormalities. And for sure, a deformed or physically handicapped child will be disadvantaged in life, and similar miseries will bear down on the parents.

Just pondering, shouldn’t the parents of the child in this kind of a predicament be allowed to decide on the fate of their own offspring and that of their own?

Think abut it.

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Justice Secretary Leila de Lima is in a bind. She is facing coup of some sort by the National Prosecution Service (NPS) of the Department of Justice (DOJ), as the latter defied Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s order to immediately issue summons against high-ranking officials of the Iglesia Ni Cristo over a complaint filed by an INC minister against leaders of the powerful religious sect.

As a result thereof, reports in the Manila Times, the case filed by Isaias Samson Jr. against the church leaders will have to wait before the conduct of the usual preliminary investigation, as the complaint will have to first undergo an evaluation stage to determine if there is enough evidence to warrant its elevation to the next process, which is the formal preliminary investigation.

And what compounds the issue even more is, no prosecutor has yet been assigned to conduct the preliminary investigation of the case contrary to de Lima’s earlier statements that it shall immediately undergo such probe.

This really appears as a revolt in some sense. Another DOJ prosecutor even described her as a“talkative” Justice secretary and said de Lima is “messing up” the case by allowing herself to be interviewed by the media.

There is even a suggestion by yet another ranking DOJ prosecutor of tossing the case to the Quezon City Prosecutor’s office, which has jurisdiction over the case.

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Several political re-alignments particularly on the vice presidency loom in to view.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano seems really bent on being the running mate of Liberal Party (LP) presidential candidate and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II in the 2016 general elections.

Cayetano, secretary general of Nacionalista Party (NP), confirmed that he has had meetings with LP stalwarts Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, jr., who are pushing him to partner with Roxas in 2016.

But he was also honest as to being on virtual fishing expedition, admitting he is holding informal talks with other political parties to run with in 2016 .

And rumors persist, Sen. Bongbong Marcos just might slide to the vice presidential race. He is prominently mentioned to be eyed by the camps of Binay and Duterte .

Enter another wannabe, lurking in the midst and determined to do it by his lonesome self. He is Sen. Antonio Trillanes, who has even announced earlier that he would run for vice president with or without NP’s support.

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The camp of Sen. Mary Grace Poe has reportedly submitted to the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) immigration her immigration certificate and other documents, which manifest that Poe is not only a Filipino citizen but a natural-born one, at that.

It seems therefore, the issue of citizenship appears simple, for there is that so-called paper trails. It behooves me though as to why some people continue to muddle it up and confuse the people.

It is not only Rizalito David, who filed the disqualification case and one female radio commentator who are adamant in insisting Poe is a non-Filipino, but stateless one yet. In their company is former Sen. Rene Saguisag, who had recently written so in his newspaper column.

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Gilas Pilipinas may have failed to win the 37th William Jones Cup but snatching the silver medal is giant feat by itself. Likewise, it may have improved as a, gaining confidence in themselves. And such just could better-prepared them for the all-important FIBA Asia Championship this month.

Gilas failed to do a repeat of its title conquest in 2012 after bowing to bitter rival South Korea only its second match. And later it bowed to Iran.

Still and all, a silver medal plus its confidence-building and exposure is not a mean feat.